Using automation to assess the risk of export shipments

On this page

• How we plan to process shipments better
• Officers still make the decisions
• Testing the system before rollout
• Collecting personal

How we plan to process shipments better

The export program has relied on manual processes to assess the level of risk associated to a shipment being exported from Canada before it leaves Canada.

Using advance electronic data, artificial intelligence and data analytics, we are shifting to a digitized and automated process that we are calling the Export Compliance Dashboard (the system).

The system will allow us to:

• improve how we identify threats (such as stolen vehicles and drugs)
• focus on intercepting high-risk shipments
• process large amounts of transactional data
• increase operational efficiency and capacity

Officers still make the decisions

The system does not make decisions on whether export shipments would need to be examined before leaving Canada. It examines the level of risk associated with an export shipment.

Our officers then decide whether to examine a shipment based on the following factors:

• Export data from the system
• Other tools (such as, external sources, websites)
• Officer expertise

After an examination, the officer may take enforcement actions, which could include, but are not limited to, seizing goods or issuing a penalty or fine. Some reasons for issuing an enforcement action may be:

• when a shipment does not comply with the Customs Act and its related regulations
• when the goods are prohibited from leaving Canada

Testing the system before rollout

We will be piloting the system prior to a national roll-out. The location and timeframe for the pilot will be determined at a later date.

Collecting personal information

The CBSA takes privacy very seriously, and remains committed to meeting all obligations under the Privacy Act. Accordingly, any disclosure or collection of commercial and/or personal information is done in accordance with the Privacy Act and the Customs Act and its associated regulations.

The system uses personal information only to the extent that is required to process goods leaving Canada, which only includes vehicle identification number (VIN) and business numbers. We will follow our standards for the retention and disposal of paper and electronic records.

We will not use the system to:

• decide any other targeting or regulatory actions affecting exporters
• target individuals

We have weighed the public impacts of deploying this automated system as per Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's Directive on Automated Decision-Making. To read the full document go to: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Export Compliance Dashboard.